Trump declared, “I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today He’s probably very interested in what you and I am saying today, and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form.”

“Putin has big plans for Russia. He wants to edge out its neighbors so that Russia can dominate oil supplies to all of Europe,” Trump said. “I respect Putin and Russians but cannot believe our leader (Obama) allows them to get away with so much…Hats off to the Russians.”

“Will he become my new best friend?” Trump asked of Putin in a tweet wondering whether Putin would attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant Trump brought to Moscow.

“I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I just think so,” Trump said in one of his first comments about the Russian leader since launching his presidential bid last June.

Trump said of the letter: “A very nice letter from Vladimir Putin; his thoughts are so correct. I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path.”

“If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” the Republican nominee said. “I’ve already said he is very much of a leader. The man has very strong control over his country

“Russia does not respect our country any longer. They see we’ve been greatly weakened, both militarily and otherwise, and he certainly does not respect President Obama. So what I would do—as an example, I own Miss Universe, I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently and I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer, and we had a tremendous success. The show was live from Moscow, and we had tremendous success there and it was amazing, but to do well, you have to get the other side to respect you, and he does not respect our president, which is very sad.”

During an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump expanded upon his welcoming of praise from Putin, remarking that “when people call you brilliant, it’s always good, especially when the person heads up Russia.”

“I think I would just get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I just think so. People say what do you mean? I just think we would. Obama and him, he hates Obama. Obama hates him. We have unbelievably bad relationships.